After a year of ups and downs “Destiny 2” has released its largest expansion, “Forsaken”. While “Forsaken” does add a lot of content and needed mechanical changes, it also delivers another mediocre story. Even so, this is the best “Destiny” has been in a long time.
It’s no spoiler that the story of this expansion revolves around the death of Cayde-6, a notorious character in “Destiny’s” story. His death happens early on and it doesn’t carry the weight that the death of a major character should. The rest of the story is a revenge tale that carries over some of the story elements from 2015’s “The Taken King” expansion. The story isn’t anything special, but it at least ties up some loose ends from years past.
While the story isn’t all that exciting, the new locations in the expansion are. The Tangled Shore, a loose collection of asteroids, is an eerie and beautiful place to roam around. The Dreaming City has some intricately designed structures and the best-looking landscapes in the game.
One of the most surprising highlights of “Forsaken” is the new Gambit multiplayer mode. Two teams of four face off in a race to kill AI enemies and use the items they drop to send more aid to the opposing side. Once in a while, a human is able to go into enemy territory to kill other players. Gambit is fast-paced and has a fun risk/reward system that makes players think about the right time to cash in their kills. Close games can really give you a rush when you’re able to work together and get the win.
While “Forsaken” is definitely the most sizable “Destiny 2” expansion it’s also the most expensive. $40 is a lot to ask for on top everything else the game has wanted you to buy. This time around the price tag is justified. The amount of content offered here gives players a ton to do. Aside from the new activities and strikes, the amount of variety added to missions has done a lot to keep the game from feeling like more of the same.
The new raid, Last Wish, is the crown jewel of “Forsaken”. Like all “Destiny” raids this requires a ton of teamwork and skill to overcome. The first completion of Last Wish can take hours upon hours to do, but nothing compares to the feeling you get when it’s over. It also has some of the best visuals in “Destiny’s” history so anyone who gets “Forsaken” needs to make sure they don’t look past Last Wish.
This expansion has some great new weapons in it and a whole new weapon type, bows. Bows are powerful and fun to use. The new exotic weapons and armor pieces offer a lot of options for experimentation. It’s hard to say how the meta of the game will shape up, but these new additions open up a lot of build options.
There’s a lot of small details I didn’t cover, but those are just cherries on the top of an already solid experience. “Destiny 2” needed something like this to keep it from getting too stale. There’s a lot in “Forsaken” that will keep longtime fans happy and entice newcomers. As good as it is though, the lackluster story and continual late-game grind keep it from being as flawless as it could have been. That’s why “Forsaken” gets four out of five stars.
Final Score: 4/5 stars
Ulises Duenas can be reached at [email protected] or @OrionUlisesD on Twitter.
